Terrorism means use of force and threats against persons, groups or governments for political or other purposes. Terrorism is not a modern activity. Hundreds of years ago societies were not as organised as they are today with modern facilities of roads, telephone, regular police force, and so on. Then heads of strong groups of people, robbers and warriors made use of force and threats to life and property to get their aims.

Now terrorism itself is quite an organised activity. There are terrorist organisations or societies which train terrorists for their purposes. Sometimes these organisations are supported by a foreign government and huge funds and modern weapons are easily provided to them. There can be some terrorists like robbers acting personally for limited purposes. 

Firstly, a regular terrorist organisation usually works against the government. It tries to damage key government buildings, offices and public places like railway stations and airports with bombs and destructive weapons. It kills people and destroys property in crowded places like market centres and bus stations. This sets the people against the government and causes public demonstrations. The bomb blasts and the resulting deaths and destruction in different parts of our country are an example of such terrorism. A terrorist organisation operating in a country usually gets money and weapons from foreign governments. It also joins hands with forceful groups or parties opposed to the Government inside the country.

Secondly, nations or big communities within a country use terrorist methods to gain greater freedom or independence. Thus the Sikhs in India have been committing acts of terrorism to achieve self-rule in the Punjab. The Irish people in North Ireland have been terrorising the British Government to force it to grant them independence.

Thirdly, there are internal or international terrorists like Carlos who actively hijack planes or kidnap (take away unlawfully) important or rich persons. They demand huge amounts of money for the release of prisoners or some political concessions for the return of the aeroplanes, passengers or the kidnapped persons. Air hijackings have been quite common.

Terrorism needs to be checked very carefully. The government should force all the people illegally present in the country to leave. It should force the refugees to remain in their camps all the time. It should make arrangements to stop the illegal flow of arms and money into the country from abroad (other countries). It should have a really effective secret service which can report all kinds of terrorist plans. It may help the United Nations Organisation to establish a special anti-terrorist international force. Other steps for checking terrorism like the use of the police or the army on a large scale can be discussed in newspapers, on the radio and TV (the mass media) and in the elected assemblies.